Let-tuce survive: City-based home chefs make lettuce a cooler veggie with these recipes

After a British tabloid compared UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’ survival to that of the star ingredient lettuce, the wit caught on with social media users. City-based home chefs list out cool ways to consume the leafy vegetable through easy recipes

Are you someone who doesn’t easily warm up to greens but quite likes a crisp lettuce leaf in their club sandwich? That crisp firmness can be attributed to the freshness of the vegetable. Lettuce is known to be the champion of long shelf life items in the fridge. If left unwashed in a ziploc bag, the ingredient can stay fresh for more than a week. It’s because of this characteristic that a British tabloid called Daily Star recently compared UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’ survival in tenure with lettuce. In the classic style of British humour, they even live-streamed a picture of Truss alongside a ball of lettuce with stick-on eyes to test who outlives whom.

As Netizens laugh along and add to the joke, we take the opportunity to highlight the benefits of adding lettuce to regular dishes in a tropical country like India. Home chef and food writer Anushruti says that the leafy vegetable is high in minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium, and it would be healthy to include it in mainstream cooking. “Using lettuce in a salad is a no-brainer, but I also love to use it in roasted and grilled vegetables. I do this by adding roughly chopped lettuce when the vegetables are half done. This ensures that the leaf does not get charred and is roasted to perfection,” she adds. 

The wellness consultant highlights that although the country is the third largest producer of this variety of greens, traditional Indian cuisine tends to overlook the benefits of this pitta or bile-balancing vegetable. She shares her household favourite — a Greek salad recipe that her son relishes.

Greek salad 

Greek salad

This recipe can be adjusted as per preferences. One can add lime juice to the dressing according to their taste. Black olives can be used, if kalamata olives aren’t available. Paneer can be used instead of feta cheese or feta can be replaced with any vegan cheese. 

Ingredients
For the salad:
. 1 bunch Romaine/Cos lettuce leaves 
. 200 gm feta cheese cut into cubes (or paneer) 
. 1 medium-sized cucumber sliced into rounds 
. 15 to 20 cherry tomatoes 
. 10 to 12 kalamata olives 
. 1 yellow bell pepper 
. 1 green bell pepper

Anushruti

For the dressing:
. 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
. 2 tbsp lime juice
. 1 tsp dried oregano
. ½ tsp black pepper
. ¾ tsp salt or to taste (adjust according to the saltiness of the feta)Method
Mix all the ingredients for the salad dressing in a bowl. Prepare the salad ingredients. After washing the lettuce, keep it immersed in ice water to preserve the crusty texture. Now, take a large bowl and assemble all the ingredients for the salad. Then, dress with the salad dressing. 

Lettuce and cherry tomato salad

Chheda suggests crushing fresh lettuce leaves and incorporating it in the Bombay green chutney for added texture. It can serve as a chewy base for the other intensely flavoured ingredients in the chutney

Hetal Chheda, founder of home kitchen @not.a.chef_, tries and incorporates the leafy green in traditional Indian dishes. She makes a Gujarati zucchini handvo that is uplifted by her homemade chimichurri sauce and a crispy side of lettuce salad. “The idea is to pack in the benefits of fresh greens in our diet,” she says.

Ingredients
. Fresh lettuce
. 7 to 8 cherry tomatoes 
. 2 tbsp olive oil 
. 1 tbsp lemon juice 
. Salt to taste 
. Pepper to taste
. 1 tsp honey or brown sugar 
. 1 tsp light soya sauce 
. 1 tsp water 

Method 
Place the leaves and tomatoes on a plate. Mix the other ingredients in a separate bowl and pour it over the leaves. The softness of handvo, zing of chimichurri and crunchy juiciness of this salad come together in a bite.

Hetal Chheda

Lettuce at its best

. Find the time to tear lettuce with your hands just the way your tear basil leaves. Using a knife can make the leaves turn 
brown faster. 
. Always dip lettuce in iced water for that crunch.
. Clean the leaves well. Separate the leaves from one another and look for small green insects.  
. Wash and clean the lettuce leaves right before using them so that they stay fresh. 
. Always cling-wrap lettuce before you refrigerate it.  

—Hetal Chheda 

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